Western Michigan University - Brown and Gold Yearbook (Kalamazoo, MI)

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better year to go, except maybe last year. book was prettier in 1974. Looking like a d of cards, with the joker on the cover, it wo have been immensely appropriate for a fi book, but not very funny. But, in a way, I suppose we brought all t on ourselves. The TI-IRESHOLD has be caught up for several years now in the crun of opposing forces: decreasing financial ba ing on the one hand, and an upward careeni spiral of production costs on the other. T year it all caught up with us. Our accumulat deficit was indeed phenomenal, amounting nearly forty thousand dollars at one point, a that, as any good businessman knows, is b business. And if our administration hereiat Wester full of anything, it is full of good businessm They know a bottomless pit when they see o and, in a way, that's what we are. One ye book covers only that, one year. Each year i wholly new production, with new beginnin new endings, and a year to capture all to its Each year means expenses of between thir five and forty thousand dollars, and that's W' a cut down version of the book from its h days in the late sixties. Yet, after all the ho of work, meeting deadlines, hounding staffer and chasing down as many groups and indix duals around the campus as possible, we st aren't doing well enough. We don't make el ough money to support ourselves, and here lies the problem. Put simply, we don't sell enough books make ours a money making operation. Nev mind that the University of Michigan sel fewer books than we do, to a student popula ion nearly twice our own. Never mind that vl sell the second largest number of college yea, books in the state of Michigan, second only i the sprawling campus of Michigan State Un versity. Never mind that WMU's Tl-IRI SHOLD has been a consistent award winner i yearbook annual competition. Never mir that in the last five years we have cut produ tion costs from a high of nearly fifty thousar dollars in 1971, to thirty-five thousand th year, and this in the face of ever rising papi

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RESHOLD - Seventy Years Young And Dying? HAPPY BIRTHDAY THRESHOLD! SEVENTY YEARS YOUNG AND DYING? Welcome, loyal yearbook supporters, to at may be your last Hurray. Western Michi- n University's yearbook the THRESHOLD rmerly the BROWN AND GOLDJ this year ebrates its seventieth year of publication, 06 to 19751. Unfortunately, it may be our t. Western's THRESHOLD appears at this int to be the victim of a severe case of year- euthanasia. We are being put out of our with what amounts to a pocketxveto by administration. We have been advised not X: g M.: I an ogy,-' 1 ' PK x WHA L, ,1 lf 3 h .A A , ,P 1 vgig, .fi . , il! ' ' uv !. l' .pr A iff--,A iv if . D . I., J -1 , fi 5 'L X, A 'Q Tll' .R , ,....,,,,s I Q . ' A YQ' K I-3 'N . i Qi- v 'g3'w'l'TllRlSmLD g-5211 1 Iggy TT YQ, at 2'-35.29933-?3ti?7ffL.:,. 1-as-2-4 Q ,Q f P 57 2 i'ii l' J if '- ' T 'f . ' ,Q HAIQ i - !,-5' A --- '1'. ,y,.,,,,:,.g1-Q---f Q 'V 7 A - ff, t . .5--1 ' :Clif U fr i f 3 X .ww M- I -,' :I mrs X -' 71- - VAV. -I Q .K I W liar-'bell - . . -v l A to make any arrangements for any future books until a final decision has been reached upon whether or not the university will allow us to continue at our present level of student support.'Meanwhile, the staff has been left in disarray, and plans for next year's book are left out in the cold, which is fatal for a yearbook. When a yearbook staff cannot keep the ball rolling by making plans and preparing for the next edition as soon as one is finished, the rhythm is interrupted, staffers depart for lack of activity and insecurity about the book's fu- ture. Soon we will be finished with this book, and when we are gone there will be no one left behind appointed to carry on our task. The administration need do nothing but leave us in limbo, and it will be too late for THRESHOLD 1976, and much easier to forget us all together. And what a year for Western to try being without a yearbook. The one year in a century that history is one of the paramount concerns of the nation, when everyone will be experienc- ing their lives and country in the special light of its bicentennial celebration. And Western will lose it. 0h, they'l1 experience it. It'll be a Wonderful year for all involved, with memora- ble events filling every calendar. And when its over, it will be just that 5 over, and we won't be here to bring it back for you. I can't think of a

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n Experiment In Yearbook Euthanasia publication costs. Never mind that in 5, the year of tight money all across Amer- the THRESHOLD made more actual dol- from sales than in any previous year. er mind that the Greeks and organizations campus are making a comeback from the e slump we were in, and that their partici- ion in this year's book increased signifi- tly over last year. Never mind that our s were up forty percent over 1974, and that number of seniors getting their picture ta- . for the book was up nearly thirty-five cent over last yearg the highest number e 1968. Never mind that for the last four rs the Western Herald, WIDR, and the RESHOLD have been the recipients of a ee way split of the university's General d, and that out of its one hundred and five usand dollar budget, the highest amount d out to THRESHOLD for any one year, E slightly above six thousand dollars. Never d that though Western's administration nplains that we do not serve enough of the npus community to warrant further fund- , that the THRESHOLD sells to a higher centage of its student population than any other state supported university in Michigan, and that with a paid business staff of two sup- plemented by three secretaries! But never mind all these never minds. Mon- ey's tight, and when the purse strings are shor- tened funny things happen, belts are tight- ened, people are laid off, and luxuries are trimmed. Apparently we're considered a lux- ury, a frill, something kind of cute, and nice to keep around in order to humor those few peo- ple that are dedicated, interested, and con- cerned with leaving a living record of Western Michigan University for any who care to relive it in the future. But that's just so long as the bucks are floating easy. 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and, brother, if you don't make a profit, at least return enough to balance the budget, you're not tough, you're not even worth the paper you're written on, nor the effort that hundreds of people have put into carving a book out of the bricks and stone, flesh and blood, that make up this university. I wonder when the last time was that the Board of Trustees made a profit. But, then, perhaps they do. If they can charge ten bucks for a one page diploma that is supposed to ' Miiihmql ',, ' E' - 'I,.F4 ' W - c Y ,V f' S M yi-M Q,-'U' i. 0 P ' ywissesbxi W' k fm 'Sv UV y i minimal W 5